Blueberry Rhubarb Pie

I always loved these dessert plates of my mother's, but I don't think she ever could have imagined them holding pie. She just wasn't a pie person and that's kind of sad now that I think of it, though this dessert would have put her in a diabetic coma.
Yeah, there's a little sugar in there.
Almost too pretty to cover with a crust.
I went ahead and brushed it with cream because...well, what the hell. Right? There's some vanilla sugar sprinkled on top as well-fancy, eh? You know it is!


Is it bluebarb or ruberry? Spell check doesn't know either.

Oh sure, my family laughs when I frantically freeze the early rhubarb, but when blueberries are at their peak, the fresh stalks are long gone. I always save a few cups to make a rhubarb apple pie in October when my in-laws come to visit, but this pie was so special looking I regret not freezing even more. Look at that colour!

The pie is deceptively simple, and I worked with fruit straight from the freezer. The pie crust is yet another attempt to get a good balance between butter and shortening-I still prefer an all shortening crust, but those (insert obscenity of your choice here______) at Crisco changed the formula and now I'm back to reinventing the wheel, or the pie crust anyway. So which obscenity did you go with? I like "rat bastards" but I'm kind of a traditionalist.

So here you go, the best rhubarb blueberry pie I've ever made with a crust that is acceptable. If you have a good crust recipe, by all means, use it-and share it in the comments if you're willing.

For the crust:

3 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/3 cup cold water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 egg

Mix flour and salt together. Cut in butter and shortening. Mix water, egg and vinegar together . You may not need it all so add it slowly until you have a dough. Handle as lightly as possible. Roll into a ball and let rest a few minutes. Roll out and line pan. Return to fridge to chill while oven preheats and you make filling. I like to roll out the top onto a cutting board and chill that as well.

For the filling:

3 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup cut-up rhubarb (fresh or frozen)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup AP flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces for dotting

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine blueberries, rhubarb, sugar, flour, salt, lemon zest and juice. Pour into chilled pie crust and dot with butter. Top with second crust. Cut slits to vent and crimp closed. Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle lightly with vanilla sugar on top (regular sugar is of course, fine).

Place the pie plate on a baking sheet (mine didn't spill over but if I'd neglected this step you know it would have). Bake about an hour, but do keep an eye on it after about forty minutes. Let stand several hours before cutting and serving. I made some vanilla ice cream to go with it.